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feeding
Sept 2, 2004 14:06:02 GMT -5
Post by Kelly on Sept 2, 2004 14:06:02 GMT -5
Hello, I am new to this group and I have a daughter, who is 2 years and 3 month with DS. We live in Malta which is a fairly small island in Europe so I am hoping I can get some advise from other parents who may be experiencing some of our difficulties. Talia refuses to eat anything that isn't smooth or liquidized. If she finds a little lump of anything in her food she immediately starts to spit. When she was younger she seemed to eat foods with lumpier things but now instead of going forward it just seems to be getting worse. She will not put anything food related in her month like baby cookies, etc. She also refuses to drink anything other than milk. Actually, if it were up to her she would only want milk from a bottle and skip the food altogether. Also, when we say the word no or we try to disipline her she starts spitting at us. We are getting very frustrated and we really don't have any feeding specialists here to turn to. Our occupational therapist thought that she may have a tactile problem but she is not afraid to touch different textures or put things in her mouth other than food. She does however hate to wear hats or pony tails in her hair. If anyone has experienced this or can give us any advice I would really appreciate hearing from you.
Thanks again....Kelly
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feeding
Sept 2, 2004 15:05:13 GMT -5
Post by YoshsMom on Sept 2, 2004 15:05:13 GMT -5
I went through this for the longest time with Yosh. He's just now trying new foods, but every meal used to be a battle. Yosh was extremely sensitive to teething and he also had mild reflux. It wasn't bad enough to make him spit up, but it made eating anyting other than formula uncomfortable. He is on Prevacid now and it works wonders.
Another thing that worked was changing consistency rather than texture. I thickened his food with Thick It, which is basically cornstarch. It made the jarred food thicker but still smooth. We've since moved to using breadcrumbs, which add a little texture without overwhelming him. Also, this may sound gross, but I added jarred veggies to his formula and gave it in his bottle to get him used to the taste. That was back when he was fighting every bite. Try different levels of spice, also. Sometimes making food either really bland or really hot helps.
I feed Yosh with a portable DVD player on, usually playing the Wiggles. The music distracts him enough to get a rhythm going with the food.
You have to be a bit of a detective. If she was eating different foods earlier, what changed? Everyone was telling me that Yosh's problem was behavioral and should be doing mouth massage with nuk brushes, but he was actually in pain. Once we dealt with the stomach pain, he was willing to eat.
I hope I've helped a little, good luck.
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feeding
Sept 3, 2004 10:05:55 GMT -5
Post by Kelly on Sept 3, 2004 10:05:55 GMT -5
Hi Kerri,
Thank you so much for responding back to my message. It is funny that you say you have to distract Josh to eat because that is exactly what we have to do to get Talia's mind off eating and we have tried everything.
Talia has always liked cereal and yoguart. We have even added shredded apple to her cereal and she will eat it if it is mixed in really well. When she was about 1-1/2 years of age I used to added baby sized pasta or little chopped carrots to her blended food and she used to eat. There were some times where she would gag on certain things so I am wondering if this turned her off eating food. We used to thicken her food with the same type of thing as Thick it and she will eat it. Then I started separating her meat from the veggies but still blended smooth and she really didn't like it but would eat it if I mixed it all together.
In regards to drinking from her bottle, she will only drink milk. We have tried everything from water, juice and watered down jarred baby fruit. She just refuses to drink anything than milk. We have tried tricking her by covering the bottle with a blanket or watering down her milk but she knows and just pushes the bottle away.
I have a feeling that she could have sensory problem with her mouth. She will allow me to a certain point to brush her teeth with both a baby toothbrush and an electric one but I also think a lot of it has to do with behavioural because I think she looks for a reaction when she spits. I am just hoping that she will out grow this. I am not sure if we should discipline her when she doesn't eat or just ignore it. I am just afraid that she will get stuck on just eating certain foods.
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feeding
Sept 5, 2004 21:37:27 GMT -5
Post by MaggiesMom on Sept 5, 2004 21:37:27 GMT -5
Oh do I feel your frustration! Maggie is 3 and 1/2. She didn't have feeding issues until an OT tried to force feed her cherrieos when she was 12 months old. Telling me if I didn't MAKE her eat them now, she'd never eat them. Well it got worse from there. It took us 4 therapists and a couple of years to get her to the point where she'll now eat soft table foods if they are fork mashed. It took a lot of work on everyone's part to get to this point! I'm living for the day when I can hand the child a piece of food and her just eat it! Ahh...it's the little things in life! But we found a wonderful therapist who told us it is sensory issues and to find out about brushing and other techniques from our OT. (We have a different OT by the way) Our current feeding therapist told me that "something" happens along the way and our kids don't trust food for some reason. We have to teach them to trust it and like it again. It has to be an enjoyable experience or why bother! Maggie likes to eat and enjoys a large variety of food. But, she will only drink pear juice! She'll take two sips of water then start spitting it. So I'm no help there. Go to talktools.com and look up their feeding programs. They have some video tapes and such that you can rent and view with your therapist. My biggest advice...find the right therapist! It will make the world of difference. By the way...I hate the word "behavioral"! Our therapist says there's a reason they ACT that way. They didn't just dream it up to annoy us! Take care. Robin M - Maggie's mom P.S. Laura Snowbird's Ethan has had some experience with feeding issues. Drop her a line and she should be of some help.
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feeding
Sept 6, 2004 20:05:24 GMT -5
Post by Claire on Sept 6, 2004 20:05:24 GMT -5
Adam now 6 was on pureed foods until he turned 5. When we started introducing solids boy did we have fun. He would spit everything out. He doesn't adjust well to the new textures. But we kept giving him a bit of the same thing day after day until he was OK with this texture then start on another one. We also did some therapy with his cheeks. Ask your occupational therapist and she should be able to help you with this.
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feeding
Sept 6, 2004 21:25:58 GMT -5
Post by MB on Sept 6, 2004 21:25:58 GMT -5
When our son was little, we started out with baby food and he ate it just fine. However, we let him be in charge of the amount. His weight was fine so if he indicated that he was finished by spitting food out of his mouth, we were happy to stop. All we ever did was offer food, we never forced the issue.
For solid food, we started at a very young age (on the advice of his early intervention program) putting his hand in whatever we were eating to get him past the tactile defensiveness. Again, we showed no emotion. Just stuck it in the potatoes and peas and meat and fruit etc.. then we wiped his hands and let him watch us eat dinner.
We started with Cheerios. Five times a day I would put him in the high chair and put cheerios on his tongue. I would do this with five cheerios each time. He would always spit them out. After a week, he started to swoosh them around and after that started to eat them.
Then I put the cheerios on his tray and waited for him to pick them up. He had a terrible time with his fine motor and would try to scoop them with the palm of his hand. After he would try, I would assist him hand over hand. Finally the day came when he was ready to do it himself. I did not help. He worked so hard getting a cheerio in his grip. He put it up to his mouth and missed. It hit his cheek and fell down. I literally had to restrain my husband and daughter. We all had tears in our eyes and it was heartbreaking to watch. But, we couldn't have someone else feeding him the rest of his life. He got the hang of it after a couple of days and the rest is history.
He has always loved pretzels and pizza and french fries. Just this year he is eating salads and fresh fruit. (He is 13 years old.) We sat down with a nutritionist over the pretzel, pizza diet and discovered that he was really getting the four food groups when we wrote down everything he was eating and drinking.
One day he refused to eat his pizza. We had gone to pizza hut and I had cut up the pizza. He pushed the plate away and signed his sister's name. I told him it was the same thing. He watched me cut it up. He pushed it away again, same sign, same explanation. Finally, he picked up the cut-up pizza and threw it in my face, grabbed his sister's whole slice and started eating it. Boy was my face red - literally LOL! He didn't want to be treated like a baby. We made other changes at home to reflect his newfound maturity.
So, take anything you can from our experience. I do know the more control we can allow our son to have over his environment, the happier he is on a daily basis. Remember, I said allow. We cannot allow him to wander around a large shopping mall just because he is a teenager. But, we can allow him to decide how much food he wants to eat at any given meal.
As far as the milk/juice thing goes. Try taking your child somewhere without any milk - like a park. Let the child watch you pack the cooler. Pack only water/juice. I think it will be interesting to see what your child will do when presented with hard evidence that the only thing available to drink is water or juice. I would not give the kid a choice. I would pick water to start. Make sure you are at a venue where no food or drink is sold within eyesight. I am telling you, our kids are so much smarter than we think. They are so intuitive. And, you may have to wait a few hours at the park until the kid is good and thirsty. In fact, you might want to start out thirsty so you don't have to stay too long. Let her cry and throw the bottle down. Just ignore her. Go on with whatever you are doing like playing with siblings or throwing a frisbee or reading a book. Every once in a while offer the bottle to her. If she doesn't take it, act nonchalant and go on with your activity. Do not talk about the "no milk" trip in front of her. I am convinced they understand everything we are saying - even at a very young age.
When she finally takes the bottle (this will probably be five minutes after you have convinced each other that you both should be locked up for child endangerment), again show no emotion. Drinking a bottle of water when one is thirsty is nothing for anyone to get excited about.
One final thought. At two years and three months, your daughter probably can drink from a cup (a messy process at first). You might want to offer her milk from a cup only and the juice and water from the bottle only. Just a thought.
About the spitting - is she mad at you or in some kind of distress. If she is mad, I'm thinking she is enjoying the shocked, angry look on your face. She is punishing you for trying to control her. Do you always get up and go wash your face? Could it be that she wants you to leave her alone and the spitting insures that you leave for even a moment? So, how can you counterattack without doing any harm? My first suggestion would be to take her out of the high chair and put her in her crib away from the family. Turn her away from you when you walk her there. Put her in the crib. Make no eye contact and leave the room. Retrieve her after the meal is over and the high chair is cleaned up.
If you are in a restaurant, turn the high chair around so she cannot see you and is persona non grata at the table. The message should be that her behavior renders her unworthy of joining the family at the table. This could take up to 15-20 repetitions before she is convinced that you are not going to allow the spitting. And the crib/turning away shows her that the parent is in charge of the situation, not the kid.
Best of luck,
MB
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